Jim Young is Principal and Secretary, The
Labor Institute, a 30-year-old labor education
organization, based in NYC. Jim has more than
20 years of experience working with unions and
labor coalitions and has been with The Labor
Institute since 2005. He is currently leading the
LI’s work with the United Steelworkers on member
education about climate change, working closely
with USW District 12, which covers 11 western
states in the US, and with District 4, which covers
the Northeast, including New Jersey, New York,
Delaware and New England.
In 2006, Jim and The Labor Institute’s Les Leopold
helped the United Steelworkers and Sierra Club
found the BlueGreen Alliance, a national partnership uniting national unions and
environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in
a clean energy economy.
From 2006-2014, Jim served as BGA’s Vice President of Programs. He also authored
or co-authored numerous reports, including Building the Clean Energy Assembly
Line: How Renewable Energy Can Revitalize U.S. Manufacturing and the American
Middle Class (2009). Prior to joining the Labor Institute, Jim was a media and strategy
consultant to many unions, including 1199 Service Employees International Union,
Utility Workers Union of America, and the Association of Flight Attendants. He also
worked for both the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health and the
New Jersey Work Environment Council, where he managed communications programs
and helped launched the organization’s Healthy Schools Program.
Jim now serves on the WEC Board of Directors. A former full-time journalist, Jim
has written about labor rights, about workplace safety and health, and about the
environment for Newsday, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Village Voice, The Guardian
(U.K.), Sierra Magazine and many other publications.